Hidden Treasure

Written and illustrated by Elly MacKay

Running Press Kids

978-0-7624-6301-5

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

June 2021

 

There's magic here. It's the magic of Elly MacKay's artwork but it's also in a child's wonder of discovery, finding treasure which most would overlook and appreciating a day of togetherness. It's in a lazy summer day on a beach and we're invited to watch.

 

From Hidden Treasure by Elly MacKay

A child and her Papa stroll down to the bay with their dog, past stores that claim to sell treasures, though she knows better.  She knows what true treasures are, and it's not the stuff sold in stores or the kind lauded by pirates in movies.

From Hidden Treasure by Elly MacKay

She finds treasure in the beach stones that are different with each visit. This day she picks up one that looks like a whale tooth, a perfect match for the whale she envisions in the clouds.

Dipping into the water, she discovers more treasure including shells, a speckled rock, a bubble wand, a rusty key and a marble, all which she lays out on the dock for her dog to see. Some she will return to the water to revisit another day and some treasures she will admire from afar, like the cocoon on the swamp milkweed.

 

From Hidden Treasure by Elly MacKay

Deciding what she will choose to add to her treasure box–“ones I can borrow, keep for a while”–is an important part of the process and one she shares with her Papa.

When I’m here, I feel like a queen.
So I think I know what treasure means.

And she knows that treasure goes beyond the things she picks up or sees on their outing.

From her debut picture book, If You Hold a Seed, Elly MacKay has been wowing young readers and their teachers, school and home, with her expressive illustrations. Because she blends drawings with ink and cut paper into scenes which she photographs–her Twitter handle is appropriately @theaterclouds–Elly MacKay melds layer upon layer of colour and texture and shape into an evocative landscapes of life and setting. The water produced from iridescent wrapping paper shimmers with movement and warmth and the beach radiates summer heat and softness with natural quiet. There's connection between people and with place but there is solitude as well. This is treasure in itself, as the child recognizes. 

 

I suspect that there will be, as there always have been, children collecting hidden treasures from walks in forests, along beaches and in urban settings on this very day. They will see the extraordinary in the ordinary. With Hidden Treasure and her ethereal artwork of theatre, Elly MacKay has reminded us all of the magic that comes from the ordinary and to see the treasure that is too often missed.

Best Pirate

Written by Kari-Lynn Winters

Illustrated by Dean Griffiths

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-019-2

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

For release September, 2017

First she was a Bad Pirate (2015) and then she was a Good Pirate (2016) but now Augusta, daughter of Captain Barnacle Garrick, is on her way to becoming an even better pirate. That is, until she burns a hole in her father's treasure map, the one that would lead them to the same treasure the Tuna Lubbers (i.e., cats) were on their way to grab on Crossbones Island.

From Best Pirate 

by Kari-Lynn Winters 

illus. by Dean Griffiths

Scully who is supposed to retrieve the treasure is sure he can help her become that better pirate.  So he works her at being crafty and nimble and fearless.  But when she drops a cannonball on his one good foot, his treasure-seeking mission is thwarted.  Augusta is determined to make things right and heads off to the island herself.

On the island, she encounters a cat pirate just as they both fall into the pit harbouring the treasure.  As they argue over whose booty it is, they realize they have to get out first.  Scuppers is afraid–he truly is a scaredy cat–but Augusta turns on her craftiness and gets Scuppers to help her jam swords and daggers into the pit's walls.  Turning on her nimbleness, she scampers up the walls using the swords as footholds.  And when a dagger comes away and Scuppers is in danger, she sets aside her fear and reaches out a paw and saves him.  

From Best Pirate 

by Kari-Lynn Winters 

illus. by Dean Griffiths

Though Scuppers recognizes Augusta as the best pirate, deserving of the treasure, she acknowledges their teamwork as leading to their success and insists they split the booty.

From Best Pirate 

by Kari-Lynn Winters 

illus. by Dean Griffiths

Too bad that Augusta doesn't get the credit from her father for finding the treasure–he believes Scully actually retrieved it–and lauded as a hero as Scuppers is by his father and the crew of the Tuna Lubbers.  Captain Barnacle still doesn't get how accomplished his daughter is at being a pirate, though Scully, Squid and Bones and Scuppers acknowledge this readily.  Readers will certainly learn a lesson from Augusta and Kari-Lynn Winters about determination and fulfilment that comes from success without the need for accolades.  She may be a dog but she's a gutsy lassy.

Dean Griffiths, who illustrated Kari-Lynn Winters' earlier Pirate books, continues to endow the story with colour richness and opulent textures from another time, just like the recurring yellow parchment backgrounds and scroll banners. And you can almost feel the movement of the sea and smell the saltiness of the air.  Even the lushness of the island's vegetation is palpable. Of course, young readers will love the dogs and cats of all species with their distinguishing features of fur and shape as well as the wide array of their expressions: friendliness,  fear, surprise, dismay, anger.

Aye, blow me down but Best Pirate is a treasure of a fine tale for pirate lovers on both sea and land.

Hannah and the Magic Eye

Written byTyler Enfield

Great Plains Teen Fiction

978-1-927855-68-3

165 pp.

Ages 8-12

April 2017

“…taking her on a tour through the last three-thousand years of Israel’s major religions–from Judaism, to Islam, and lastly to Christianity–all of them locked together by a shared history in this solitary, enchanted city and a magical ring once worn by its wisest king.” (pg. 135)

Think The Da Vinci Code for middle-graders and you have Edmonton author Tyler Enfield’s Hannah and the Magic Eye.  Entombed in archaeology, a secret society and secret codes, it's a thriller which takes place in Jerusalem, one of the oldest and historically richest cities of the world.

Twelve-year-old Hannah travels from her home in Brussels, Belgium to visit her famed archaeologist grandfather, Henri Dubuisson, in Jerusalem.  When she arrives and Henri is not there to meet her, she only has a cryptic note he’d sent her to guide her.  She discovers a secret online message from her Grandpa Henri about a treasure beyond her wildest dreams and a secret society called the Cancellarii in search of the same treasure. Convinced Henri has been kidnapped and attempting to avoid several nefarious characters who attempt to follow her and grab her, Hannah, with the help of a Palestinian boy who likens himself to George Clooney, uncovers an ancient journal by ancestor Julien Dubuisson.  Hannah and Clooney must decipher the seven illustrations within, using a camera and a lot of ingenuity about historic sites in Jerusalem and environs, if they are to decipher the mysterious treasure map and discover a treasure that once belonged to King Solomon and save her grandfather.

No stops for deep breaths on this adventure.  Tyler Enfield has plotted a story so intricate and action-packed that young readers won’t have time to take breaks to learn about the historic details woven into the story (though they will surely be googling King Solomon, the different quarters of Jerusalem and the Dome of the Rock after finishing the book).  Clever Hannah is like a young Indiana Jones with her loyal sidekick Clooney who gets her both into and out of trouble.  With Hannah’s code-breaking skills and historic knowledge along with Clooney’s familiarity with their exotic location, Hannah and the Magic Eye is a thrilling course of intrigue that captivates and captures, inviting young readers to travel with Hannah and Clooney on their adventure, even on camel back. And judging by the conclusion of Hannah and the Magic Eye, they have a subsequent treasure hunt in Cambodia with Hannah and Clooney assisting Henri, all courtesy of Tyler Enfield's elaborate plotting and savvy for telling an exciting middle-grade story.

Nomad

Written by R. J. Anderson

Orchard Books

978-1408326480

352 pp.

Ages 12+

2014

Reviewed from audiobook
Oakhill Publishing Ltd.
 978-1784331016
Narrated by Lucy Scott
2014

When R. J. Anderson ended Swift (Orchard Books, 2012), Ivy had helped save her piskey family and friends of the Delve from the evil faery Gillian, but had been banished by her aunt Betony, the Joan, as a traitor.  Since then she has been looking for a place where the piskeys might live in safety away from the poison infiltrating th Delve –their below-ground tunnels home–and colluding with her brother Mica’s hunting partner, Mattock, who obviously has feelings for her and with her best friend Jenny to convince the piskeys that they are unsafe.

Meanwhile, Ivy is dreaming of a spriggan boy who is the son of a chief and a faery and Martin (formerly known as Richard), the faery-raised spriggan with whom she has been traveling, believes that Ivy must be having visions of memories of what actually happened, and perhaps these will help them find other spriggans.

But poor Ivy and Martin are trying so hard to do the right thing, for themselves and each other and the people from which they come, and there are so many others working against them.  Sadly, so much is tied up in prejudices between the different supernatural folk.  Although Ivy and Martin are both part faery, they have been raised to distrust each other, just as spriggans, faeries and piskeys have as long as they can remember.  And now, Ivy and Martin find themselves helping each other more than just as repayment for previous help and are experiencing growing affection for each other.  How to balance all their needs and feelings and be true to themselves?

R. J. Anderson is a a masterful storyteller of faery fantasy, easily convincing the reader that her characters are more than just human, even better than human.  And that’s saying something.  R. J. Anderson can create empathy for characters who can change into bird form, wield magic, and transfer memories, while creating realistic story-lines about finding or making home under unusual, if not dire, circumstances.  While R. J. Anderson continues to weave amazing stories–she has a new one called A Pocket Full of Murder coming out in September–she has announced on the FAQ page on her website that there are no current plans for a sequel to Nomad. As disappointing as that is not to revisit the characters in whom we've invested our hearts, readers can be assured that R. J. Anderson has cobbled an ending that will appease and successfully bring all her characters home where they belong.